James Serpento
Thrilled and appreciative to now be working with the Repertory Theater of Iowa, JAMES has worked as actor, director and/or writer on hundreds of productions for stage and screen across the nation, and is a multiple award-winner in all of these categories.
Among his favorite directorial projects have been the RTI productions of Hughie, All My Sons and Endgame, as well as two productions for Los Angeles’ Eclectic Company Theatre: Landscape of the Body, which included an LA Ovation Award-nominated performance by Daphne Ashbrook (Dr. Who); and Two Gentlemen of Verona, which was named a “Critics Choice” by the LA Times’ Robert Koehler (“an exceptionally intelligent, impassioned reading of a tricky play.”)
James’ film directing, with producer Kimberly Busbee of AriesWorks Entertainment, includes four short pieces and the features The Yoofo Club and Haunting Villisca, the latter having been named Best Feature at the Iowa Independent Film Festival and now distributed by Digital Shadow Pictures.
As an actor, James has worked extensively in theatre (most recently in RTI’s Twelfth Night and Love and Other Matters), film (The Final Season, Sixteen to Life, Ash and Dylan’s Wake, among others) and countless industrials and commercials in Chicago, Indianapolis and Des Moines.
James is the author or co-author of more than fifty plays and screenplays, most of which have been professionally produced (including his adaptation of Chekhov’s “The Ninny,” produced by RTI in 2010’s Love and Other Matters.) His NYC credits include Night Class and Of Weddings and Divorces (the latter produced by the American Theatre of Actors as a winner of their playwriting competition) while, in Chicago, his plays A Danse for My Sisterlie, On the El Nighttimes and Private Passage (co-authored with Louise Bylicki) were well-received. He is a proud Resident Playwright Alumnus of the renowned Chicago Dramatists.
James and his lovely partner Alissa are the happy and proud parents of baby Samuel, and he also sends love and thanks to his large extended family of parents, siblings, step-kids, colleagues and artists of every stripe.
